Jun 17, 2016

There is an app that is pre-loaded on iPhone and
available for Android that could save your life or the life of
someone you love.It is the Health app,
which includes Medical ID. You can use Medical ID to list the
names of your emergency contacts, their phone numbers, special
instructions, your health ailments, and any medications you are
taking or allergic to, that emergency personnel should know
about.Paramedics may not have
time to access this information on your phone in an emergency,
so it is not meant to replace a medical ID bracelet. However, if
time is available, emergency personnel usually know they can
swipe for this information.For iPhones, Tap on
Medical ID > Edit. Then turn on Show When Locked. This
ensures that first responders can see your medical information
even when your iPhone screen is locked. To make an emergency
call or to see your Medical ID, wake up your phone by swiping
left to right > tap Emergency > make emergency call or tap
Medical ID to see the stored medical information.For Android users
solutions vary by manufacturer. Under Settings, look for an
Emergency Contact-type feature. It may be under My Information.
If so, fill in your medical information and emergency contact
numbers.

To add an Emergency
Contact to your phone lock screen, tap Settings > Lock Screen
> check mark Owner Info > Tap the small icon to the right
of Owner Info > type in your emergency contact name and phone
number after owner name. This information will scroll across
your lock screen even when it is locked.

Mar 6, 2015

The last quarter of 2014 has seen the phablet smartphones with a screen 5.5 inches and larger have the most impressive sales performance to date, constituting 12.8% of total global mobile device sales.

These phones have been outperforming the mobile device market since the launch of the Galaxy Note in 2012, and their popularity continues to rise in all regions. Even the original smartphone producer capitulated and introduced a large iPhone factor. The prediction of insiders is that this form factor will continue to increase as older contracts come up for renewal.

Sep 5, 2014

iPhone - Press and hold the Home button along with the Sleep/Wake button. You should hear a shutter click. The screenshot will appear in your Camera Roll or Saved Photos section.

Android - Hold the Power and Volume Down buttons at the same time. The image is saved to the "Captured Images" folder in your Gallery app. That only works in Android 4.0 and higher. For some Samsung Galaxy phones, hold the home and power off buttons at the same time.

Want
to increase the font size to something a bit easier to see?
iPhone
Go to Settings>>General>>Accessibility and turn on
Bold Text and Larger Text. You can choose either one or both,
depending on your preferences. You will need to restart your phone
for Bold Text to take effect.

Android
Go to Settings>>Accessibility. Under Vision, tap Font size
and set it to Large. Some phones include an even larger 'Huge'
option.

Want to have your phone read things out loud?
iPhone
Go to Settings>>General>>Accessibility and turn on
VoiceOver. You will need to do some playing around to get used to
it. For example you can touch and drag your fingers around the
home screen to have it read what's there. Double tap to activate
an app, while one tap will give you details about it. VoiceOver
will read directions to you in Maps, have your camera tell you how
many people are in your shot, and get spoken photo descriptions.
You can also hand write notes and letters on the screen and have
VoiceOver translate your messages into text for Mail and other
apps.

Android
Go to Settings>>Accessibility and tap TalkBack. If you don't
see it, you can download it from the Google Play store. Turn it on
and your phone will read whatever you touch on the screen and
incoming notifications. To perform a regular swipe gesture, you
need to use two fingers instead of one. To adjust your TalkBack
settings, go to Settings>>Accessibility and tap
Text-to-Speech options. You can adjust the voice engine and speed
rate. Then go to Settings and turn on Hands-free mode. This will
tell you who is calling or messaging. (I tried this and it was
so irritating, that I shut it off)

Want to control your phone camera with voice?
Android
Open the camera app and tap the gear to see the settings. Scroll
down to Voice control and turn it on. Now you can take pictures
with the commands, "Capture," "Shoot," "Smile" and "Cheese." If
your phone doesn't have a built-in camera app with this feature,
you'll need a third-party app like Say
Cheese.

Oct 19, 2012

No, not a way to look for apples. It is a
way Apple is tracking your iPhone. The new operating system that
came out a few weeks ago has a feature that is turned on by default.
IFA or IDFA stands for "identifier for advertisers." It is a random,
anonymous number that is assigned to you and your iPhone.

The good news is that you can turn it off so advertisers cannot
track your every move.

First, what it does. When you look at an app, or browse the web,
your presence generates a call for an ad. The site you are looking
at passes the IFA to the ad server so an advertiser knows a specific
iPhone user is looking at a specific publication and can direct a
specific ad to you.

To disable this, go to "Settings," "General," then "About," and then
"Advertising." The tracking control is titled "Limit Ad Tracking,"
and must be turned to On. On means 'limit tracking' so tracking is
not working. Interesting, you have to turn it on to turn
tracking off.

"Nowadays, penlight art is often used at wedding ceremonies and
school festivals, but it requires an SLR and photography skills. We
wanted to make penlight art easier, so people of all ages can enjoy
it. What we've done is, we've created a simplified version of
penlight art as an iPhone app."

"This penlight offers up to 27 colors at the touch of a button. It
also provides straight lines, dotted lines, and gradation, so you
can do a lot of things with it. This application really makes you
want to get creative."

"You can also turn a series of photos into a video, like a flip
book, and you can upload to Twitter and Facebook directly from the
Album mode. So, you can share your photographic creations with
everyone."

The multicolored penlight will be available for approximately $30
and the iPhone app can be downloaded for free. Beware, the site
can be addicting because it has so much advanced, cool, fun, and
useless technology.
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Nov 18, 2011

Each minute, 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, and it is only one of many video sites. There are millions of photos uploaded to Facebook each month. Flicker has 5 Billion photos and there are hundreds of photo sites like it. Millions of people have iPhones and Androids with video and still cameras. Google Earth is constantly scanning the globe from satellite and you can actually zoom into a view of your own home. I found one site where you can compare pictures from today, side-by-side with the same location from many years ago.

There are many thousands of cameras in public places around the world. One site that I enjoy has a collection of cameras available from around the world and it has a search capability LINK. Earthcam has locations of cameras that you can watch what is going on in full detail, live, up-to-the-minute color, and in full screen. Get a view from the Statue of Liberty, or Trafalgar Square. Check out the ski conditions in Switzerland. How about a live view of Hong Kong, or Melbourne? There is even a camera to watch the penguins in Sarasota, Florida.

Dallas has hundreds of traffic cameras that you can click on and watch traffic and weather. If you know someone it going to work on I75, you can actually watch them drive all the way to work, using the many traffic cameras. You can even set up a list of personal cameras that you want to watch. If a spouse or friend calls and says there is an accident, you can check the cameras and tell them what happened. Of course, if they have their iPad, they can look it up themselves while they are at a dead standstill.

Be careful if you call and tell your boss you are stuck in traffic, he or she might just check the cameras to make sure you are telling the truth.

Planning a trip, check the weather and traffic cams set up in the city you are going to and get a close up look at weather and traffic conditions. Tie these together with Google Streetview and you can look up pictures of the building, neighborhood, or house you are looking for. If you are going on vacation almost anywhere in the world, let your family back home know where you will be and they can watch you on a local camera. Of course, you can just stream your own video from your phone.

It is fun, interesting, distracting, and a bit scary at the same time. Big brother, big sister, and their nieces and nephews, cousins, and neighbors are all watching.Smile, you are on camera!

Oct 29, 2011

The new voice application for the iPhone that was just announced is very cool, but do you remember that Feb 26, 2010 Friday Thoughts, I told you it was coming. Wow, what a long gestation. Also, Android phones have had voice response for a long time.

Aug 19, 2011

The government has a mobile app for your iPhone that shows details of how the stimulus money is and is not being spent. It also has many other details on the web site for your reading pleasure. Did you know that over a hundred billion dollars from the Stimulus has still not been spent?

May 20, 2011

Do you think your phone was expensive?Try this one. The Goldstriker iPhone is encrusted with 271 grams of 22 carat pure solid gold and more than 200 diamonds. The Apple logo on the back features 53 gems and the home button is covered with a single 7.1 carat diamond.

It is also decorated in a chest carved from granite and kashmir gold along with a lining made from top Nubuck grain leather. Oh, the cost, $3.2 million.

Feb 18, 2011

Here is a free app that you download to your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. Just download it and you are ready. Great if the device is misplaced, or stolen. It can find it, lock it, erase data, or whatever else you want to do. LINK

Jan 7, 2011

Be careful with that new technology in your hand. An examination of 101 popular smartphone apps (games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones) showed that 56 transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies without users' awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone's location. Five sent age, gender, and other personal details to outsiders.

The findings reveal the efforts by online-tracking companies to gather personal data about people in order to build databases of information about them. Many companies don't have privacy policies and there isn't much you can do about it.

iPhone apps transmitted more data than the apps on phones using Google's Android operating system. Apps sharing the most information included TextPlus 4, for text messaging. It sent the phone's unique ID number to eight ad companies and the phone's zip code, along with the user's age and gender, to two of them.

Both the Android and iPhone versions of Pandora, a music app, sent age, gender, location, and phone identifiers to various ad networks. iPhone and Android versions of the game Paper Toss each sent the phone's ID number to at least five ad companies.

Millennial Media lists 11 types of information about people that developers may transmit to "help Millennial provide more relevant ads." They include age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and political views. MySpace also sent a user's income, ethnicity and parental status. Bottom line, the more you play, the more you pay is even more true in the information age.

Dec 14, 2010

The free Vonage Mobile application for Facebook lets you call your Facebook friends anywhere in the world if they have the same app downloaded in their iPhone or Android.

It is available for Android phones in 48 countries and in 87 countries for iPhone or iPod Touch and is available from Vonage Facebook fan page. You can also invite your friends to download the mobile application.

After downloading this app, you enter your Facebook ID and password for the first time.
The software then automatically loads your Facebook contacts and separates them into two groups. One with friends who downloaded Vonage mobile app and you can call them for free. Other group shows Facebook friends who are available for instant messaging.
Just, touch the friend’s name from the Call Free list and your free call is connected.

Nov 11, 2010

The Nokia 1100 cell phone is in the hands of over a billion people (as of 2009) around the world. The iPhone gets most of the press and has sold millions, but the Nokia 1100, which has been around since 2003, just keeps selling and selling. It has also been named the best consumer electronics device in the world. BTW - Android phones are currently outselling the iPhones by almost two to one. Much has to do with the high cost of the iPhone.

Oct 7, 2010

Scientists have developed an iPhone app that can give cheap, accurate prescriptions for glasses. The Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment (NETRA) works in a radically different way than conventional eye tests to diagnose the exact prescription someone will need in a matter of minutes.

The patient uses the phone's buttons to adjust the position of sets of parallel green and red lines until they overlap. Instead of just estimating which of two views is less blurry the user adjusts their own display to make a scene come into focus. The more the buttons are pressed, the worse the person’s eyesight. This test is performed eight times for each eye, then it analyzes the results and delivers a prescription within minutes. The system is even able to measure other abnormalities, such as astigmatism.

The app could drastically slash the cost of eye tests.

Patients tests their eyesight by staring into a small, cheap plastic lens which fits over the iPhone’s screen. The scientists say that even though the plastic attachment will cost around a dollar at first, it could be far cheaper if produced in bulk.

May 7, 2010

True - For mothers-to-be, there is an iPhone application that sends ovulation alerts to your phone. It sends a series of 18 text messages (3 per menstrual cycle) that let you know when you are most likely to be fertile and provide helpful fertility advice. The name is 'booty caller'.

Mar 26, 2010

Here is an interesting twist, an application for the iPhone that plays radio.

Public Radio Exchange developed the free Public Radio Player for the iPhone and now has 2.5 million downloads. The other application it has developed is for the show 'This American Life'. Since we already have video on the phone, seems logical to add radio as another battery burner.

Mar 19, 2010

The 319-bed Hospital of Central Connecticut has launched a free iPhone application that will tell you how long the wait is at both of its emergency rooms. It will also give you directions, in case you are already in the car.

Mar 11, 2010

To prevent the wrong moment, there is an iPhone application that sends ovulation alerts sent to your phone. It sends a series of 18 text messages (3 per menstrual cycle) that let you know when you are most likely to be fertile and provide helpful fertility advice. The name is 'booty caller'.

Feb 26, 2010

Talk into your iPhone and tell Siri what you want. Tickets for a show, reservations at a restaurant, a taxi to pick you up. Siri can arrange to get you what you need. Best of all, Siri learns what you want, and gets better at understanding your commands, just like a human assistant.

It was originally developed as part of DARPA’s CALO project and represents more than five years of research and refinement. The App is sophisticated enough to filter through a sentence and identify the relevant key words and know what to do. It understands to use GPS to determine what “in your area” means. It can handle most any command for six broad categories of interest: restaurants, movies, events, taxis, local information, and weather. Oh, did I mention it is free?
It can understand complicated commands that use unspecific key words. “I’d like a PG-13 movie near my house that’s funny and romantic.” Siri can handle that by using its patented algorithm to learn how to translate words and phrases into commands.

The Siri company has more than $24 million in funding and has plans to expand to include reminders, flight stats, reference questions, and many more tasks. It is currently only available for iPhone 3GS with OS 3.1, but it will eventually be offered for iPod Touch, iPhone 3G, and other smart phones. I love technology.